Balancing on The Fence
by Camiya
Summary: Fact: Sasuke has extended stays abroad due to missions. Fact: he's gone longer than he has to be. Why? Because he visits an alternate dimension where his clan never died. The problem? Sarada is beginning to question his prolonged absences again. Sasuke x Sakura


_Summary: Fact: Sasuke has extended stays abroad due to missions. Fact: he's gone longer than he has to be. Why? Because he visits an alternate dimension where his clan never died. The problem: Sarada is beginning to question his prolonged absences again. Sasuke x Sakura_

 _Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!_

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 **Prologue: Pot O' Gold**

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A smile on his face now, guilt in his stomach later.

It's a vicious cycle, Sasuke has come to notice - and it's one he cannot, _will not_ , break. Because without that guilt in his belly, he may not ever return to his true reality. The guilt keeps him grounded and reminds him of his responsibilities - they're the things he only allows himself to forget for a portion of a second before they come crashing down around him once more.

In one reality, he has no left arm, no clan, and a wife and child he has to leave constantly in order to keep their fragile peace in tact. In this alternate reality, he has both his arms, his clan, and a family that he sees every night. In one reality, he has lost and gained so much, in the other, he has only flourished. Peace is fleeting in one and prevalent in another.

In the reality he was born in, a large part of him still seeks redemption for his sins. In the reality he came upon just by traveling through dimensions with his rinnegan, it's as if gravity isn't crushing him - his wings work like well oiled machines, strong and carried by the winds of passion.

Is it so hard to see why every day it gets harder to return?

"Hmm, Sasuke-kun, what's with that look?" a sleepy voice murmurs in his ear. He takes a moment to allow her hot breath to stimulate his skin before opening his eyes to face her. Emerald green irises peer up at him from behind messy rose blonde hair, her cheeks still flush with a glow from their love making.

"Nothing," he answers, wrapping his arms - yes, arms, because in this reality he never lost the left (which had been such a strange sensation when he first came here) - around his wife. Her trained muscles tense and relax against his hold as she squirms to get even closer to him. He learns that he doesn't mind her fidgeting one bit.

"I won't push," she says with a yawn. She nuzzles her face against his neck and adds: "Goodnight, I love you, darling."

 _Darling_. Both this Sakura and the Sakura of his original reality refers to him as such. Yet, their relationships, and the people that they are, though nearly identical in appearance (save for scars), are vastly different.

When he first arrived in this dimension, he got an overload of memories and emotions that didn't seem like his own - but they were, they just belonged to a different version of himself.

This Sakura he fell in love with through years of being on the same team, rarely spending much time apart. They travelled often during their courtship and the first year of their marriage. When they returned from a few years on the road, Sakura got hired on as a full-time surgeon at the hospital and Sasuke decided to work with Itachi at the Uchiha Police Station.

He was his brother's partner, and they kept the crime down in Konoha together, but then Itachi fell ill. Sakura came over to check on him for Sasuke only to diagnose him with stage 3 lung cancer. Thanks to his wife and the other good doctors of the Konoha hospital, Itachi is now in remission. He plans on working at the police station again once he is cleared.

Sakura from his true reality, has spent a majority of her relationship with him in separation. Before and after marriage, she, along with their daughter, Sarada, have always been his home to come to - his break from reality if even for just a moment. Sakura always greets him with open arms and love, no matter how long the separation, and now, Sarada, too.

However . . .

He, regretfully, cannot help but be tempted by this alternate reality too. He has his brother, his clan, his best friend (still Naruto), his wife, and . . . instead of one child, he has three: Sarada, their first born still, Rikona, their middle born daughter, and their youngest (and only son), Sora.

Sarada is the same in both realities, except that she doesn't have any issues concerning him. There was never a time when she felt the need to seek him out because he has always been around. The memories he had missed out in his original reality, exist in his mind here. He was there when she started the academy, in fact, he often took her for Sakura whom was working a variation of morning and night shifts often - and he was there when she graduated.

Rikona, just three years younger than Sarada and in the same class as Himawari, is an intelligent girl as well. She is rambunctious and somewhat mischievous - as he learned when he refused to show her shurikenjutsu one time and she snuck a ghost pepper on his tomato sandwich that night. When he bit into the sandwich and thought he had somehow managed to swallow flames from Amaterasu, he caught her big, obsidian gaze wide with amusement from behind her long raven fringe and knew immediately what she had done.

On another note, she is at the top of her class, as expected of an Uchiha, and has recently awakened her sharingan. She likes to spend time with her 'mamaw' Mikoto and 'papaw' Fugaku, who like to spoil her to death. (Which somewhat irks Sakura, because, "Darling, grandparents shouldn't play favorites!".)

As for Sora, another Sasuke look alike - which disappointed Sakura as she hoped at least one of her children would inherit her green eyes or shocking pink hair - is just five-years-old. He recently started the ninja academy and is showing promise. However, both Sasuke and Sakura noticed early on that he is a gentle soul like his uncle and would do well in pursuing medical interests.

Sasuke likes to think that a combination of spending time with Sakura and Itachi nurtured his sweet nature, as the former often took him to work with her (exposing him to the medical field) before he started school and the latter enjoyed babysitting the child when Sasuke and Sakura asked him to. According to his memories, Itachi also liked to pack the boy on his shoulders and go to the park where they'd watch birds and swing together. As a result of this, Sora has a strong attachment to both his mother and his uncle.

Sasuke doesn't deny this: he loves his additional children and feels guilty when he leaves them too.

Regardless, he knows he'll eventually have to make a choice between the two realities - no matter how much he doesn't want to. He can feel it.

Sasuke sighs to himself and finds himself clinging to Sakura a little tighter, his eyes closing as he forces himself into a restless slumber.

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 **To Be Continued . . .**

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Author's Note: I haven't wrote in a long time, but this fic has been sitting in my head a while. I was going to originally post a prologue along with chapter one, but decided against it to see what you all think about the idea. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated!


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